The 8 Biggest Mistakes Field Marketers Make and How to Avoid Them

Editor's Notes

• #2: Update with new cover from visual brand deck.
• #5: To me, this sets it all up. If you don’t understand your role as a field marketer, you definitely cannot be successful. Tip number 1: recognize your strategic value to the company and set a clear definition to your organization (and yourself)
• #6: A common misperception of field marketing is thinking that it’s all about events. Yes, field events are a piece of the field marketing success matrix, but your value is SO much more to your company. You should see yourself, and attain visibility for yourself, as a true partner of your sales organization.
• #8: Leverage you marketing teams to help you, too. See your part of the matrix and understand where your role fits into the bigger picture to help your demand generation team be successful.
• #10: In order to create true alignment with your sales team, you need to be able to speak their language. Take some time to study their jargon, and especially, their roles and processes.
• #11: We all know the classic tales of visiting France and how the French look down upon you for not at least TRYING to learn their language. Don’t let this happen to you when you engage with your sales teams. Ensure you know some key sales terms to speak their language and show that you truly understand their perspective. In a meeting and don’t know an acronym that comes up? Find an opportunity to sneak onto the web to search for it, or bravely admit that you’re learning and ask for clarification. True partners will value your desire to learn!
• #12: Territory Analysis – review of how many accounts in your geo that fit the right profile/active engagement/competing products/other buying indicators Account Selection – taking the above to decide which accounts to focus on Outbounding/Prospecting – tools available to find the right people and make the right connections Forecasting - Estimating future sales performance for a certain time period (typically based on past data) – helps with goal setting and strategy. CRM Accountability - day job responsibility to keep CRM updated with key information about accounts
• #13: Lead Statuses – if they mark someone as an opportunity – should you be marketing to them anymore? Touch Stages – partner with your SDR team to understand their level of contact with a person Average Deal Cycle – how long does it typically take to close a deal in your segment? 1 week? 1 month? 6 months to a year? Levels of Engagement – intro meeting/RFP/demo (pre-sales)/POC/procurement/IT/contract – also understand what can delay a deal
• #14: Others: Gatekeeper Upside Pain point Pipeline Quota Commission Social Selling Upsell/Crosssell Blog to come with more terms to help you!
• #16: In a meeting and don’t know an acronym that comes up? Find an opportunity to sneak onto the web to search for it, or bravely admit that you’re learning and ask for clarification. True partners will value your desire to learn!
• #18: It’s important to connect with your sales teams to understand where you should focus TOGETHER. In a very simple example, you don’t want to be focusing on a region of San Francisco, when your sales management sees most of their pipeline coming from Dallas this quarter. Be sure to align with their goals to get the most bang for your buck for effective programs. Identify geographies/accounts in need of support Partner on programs to bolster these areas
• #19: Understand how sales goals relate to your own. See if you can access a dashboard where all of these goals live. Ask for quarterly quota goals to help you understand how many programs to run in order to effectively support the team.
• #21: The last mistake leads me to this one – not partnering with sales overall. The best part of your job is getting to know your sales reps, their styles, their needs. Working with their management team to understand where they want to focus for the quarter/year. Enjoy this part of the job exploring different personalities and making life-long relationships.
• #22: Don’t let this be you. Work on creating a relationship with your sales teams – from the top to the bottom – create an individual relationship with each person that you support.
• #23: Be transparent. Share what your goals are, as well as understand theirs. Set expectations for programs – we’ll only do these again if we’re able to get 2 opportunities per program, etc. Get buy-in before executing programs to ensure a true partnership for success.
• #24: Be transparent. Share what your goals are, as well as understand theirs. Set expectations for programs – we’ll only do these again if we’re able to get 2 opportunities per program, etc. Get buy-in before executing programs to ensure a true partnership for success.
• #25: Align across all organizations in the structure. And identify a few ways you can help!
• #26: We have a lot of tools available for you to use to help with your prospecting. MOPs will create these reports and we can pull them for you. Use InsideView to identify accounts with viable information People who have hit the website often are warmer leads Filter on your spreadsheet under different criteria to see where the most action is happening, where we have the most names, etc. Use InsideView to create alerts for your geography/accounts to send you updates, use available tools to map out who you should reach out to first, where to go on the organizational chart to reach the right audience
• #27: We have a lot of tools available for you to use to help with your prospecting. MOPs will create these reports and we can pull them for you. Use InsideView to identify accounts with viable information People who have hit the website often are warmer leads Filter on your spreadsheet under different criteria to see where the most action is happening, where we have the most names, etc. Use InsideView to create alerts for your geography/accounts to send you updates, use available tools to map out who you should reach out to first, where to go on the organizational chart to reach the right audience
• #28: Multiple programs to help you build stronger relationships with prospects and push deals forward; focus on quality vs. quantity to get the right people involved for 1:1 interactions. Can have a pipeline building focus (note: new names/new accounts) or focus on deal acceleration (note: conversations ongoing) Industry specific/vertical programs to hit on a specific hot topic for a specialty Target Account-Hosted Events – go where your people are; show stewardship via sponsoring charity events; get into other business units by showcasing software
• #30: We all make this mistake. We want to be helpful, so we say “yes”! To everything that comes our way. Even I struggle with this. For example, I probably shouldn’t have said yes to this webinar right after Summit and before SiriusDecisions Summit!
• #31: Sales will ask for the world. And, as a good partner, you’ll want to help give it to them. But you need to learn when to put a yield sign up and take a step back. Evaluate the request strategically – will this support your goals, does the sales manager want to focus in this area, do you have budget/time/resources to support. Sometimes you’ll have to say no. My best advice: be transparent. Help them learn. Why isn’t this suggestion a good fit? Do you not have good messaging around that vertical? Is your company moving to sell to B2B and away from B2C so an eCommerce event doesn’t make sense? Has budget been allocated for the quarter? And offer alernatives – maybe another team has budget to spare (think: partners/sales), maybe they can manage a smaller scale program on their own, maybe you can revisit next quarter when you’ll have more budget. As always, be professional, respectful, and prove that you’re trying to make the best decision for the company.
• #33: You are not alone! Leverage your internal partners for success
• #34: There are a lot of teams at your disposal. Work on common goals. Leverage their expertise. Segment/Product Marketing: messaging/presenters Business Development: budget/resources/partners for lead gen Marketing Operations: report building/program understanding Customer Marketing: customer stories/presenters Sales Operations: reports/account ownership
• #37: If you’re doing marketing right, then you’re tracking the performance of your programs. If this raises an alarm bell for you, it’s time to start evaluating some marketing technology to help you out. For the sake of argument, let’s assume you have the right technology to help you understand the value of your programs. Don’t make the error of just uploading your leads and then let it go. Make sure you’re entering everyone into your system AND managing for accurate attribution.
• #39: Sounds like a lot of work, right? Well, if you don’t, you could make one of the biggest mistakes—re-running poor performing programs. Review your data regularly, interpret what it’s telling you, and create repeatable, revenue-driving programs instead of executing on ideas that “sound good.” Move away from the fluffy feel-good sales programs and invest in those that will drive your business! Source: https://www.marketo.com/definitive-guides/marketing-metrics-and-marketing-analytics/
• #40: There’s a lot of data available, so make sure you’re coming to the right conclusions!
• #41: Many ways that something could not live up to snuff. Reflect on what goes well and what doesn’t. Maybe you can learn and optimize to improve performance, or maybe you should just ditch it altogether. But it’s always good to try new things!
• #42: ADD ANIMATION Tried it first with a piece with the Economist – had multiple meetings CMO:CMO Repeated with HBR piece later to new CMOs
• #43: Why rework the wheel if you know something is successful? Repeatable successes across regions makes you more efficient and allows you to do more. NOTE: LAYER OUT THE ANIMATIONS
• #44: Why rework the wheel if you know something is successful? Repeatable successes across regions makes you more efficient and allows you to do more. NOTE: LAYER OUT THE ANIMATIONS
• #45: Why rework the wheel if you know something is successful? Repeatable successes across regions makes you more efficient and allows you to do more. NOTE: LAYER OUT THE ANIMATIONS
• #47: I haven’t met a field marketer who isn’t a Type A personality, but maybe I’m not branching out enough. Field marketing is a very versatile role, so it’s imperative to stay organized, keep a sharp focus on details, and be prepared for anything and everything.
• #48: Figure out how you best stay organized. You’re likely supporting multiple, multiple reps (in my case, 50+), so figure out how to stay on top of your obligations. Don’t overpromise, and set yourself up for success. Don’t get frustrated and throw it all away like this guy!
• #49: Field marketers need to live by this principle – anything that can go wrong, will go wrong Company priorities will change Account focus will change Attendees won’t show Or too many will show! Sales reps will turnover Speakers will cancel And on and on and on… Think like a Boy Scout: Be Prepared Have a Plan B, Plan C, Plan Z, even!
• #50: I promise, it will all work out in the end. Unless the world is LITERALLY ending. It’s going to be okay. There is almost always a solution to the problem at hand. A great time to not be afraid to ask for help!
• #51: I promise, it will all work out in the end. Unless the world is LITERALLY ending. It’s going to be okay. There is almost always a solution to the problem at hand. A great time to not be afraid to ask for help!
• #54: We all make mistakes. Really. Even perfectionists (aka the personality type typically drawn to the field marketing profession). But my motto is, it’s not a mistake unless you DON’T learn from it (and then do it again…). So, you’re welcome for helping you learn from others’ mistakes instead of having to make your own. 